The Coming of Man

Reflection
is sometime in our future.
For now,
we evolve,
adapting, adopting,
to our Neolithic surrounds,
sating ourselves
on the flesh of others
while avoiding the indignity
of being eaten ourselves,
keeping warm and dry
in the bitterest cool
and hydrated
when fierce sun
ignites the landscape,
the strongest of us mating,
the weakest sacrificed
as tribute to the gods –

we’re getting to reflection,
but we’re not there yet,
for we’ve trees to fell,
huts to build,
fields to sow and harvest,
other tribes to conquer,
hierarchies to establish,
laws to write and defend,
and not forgetting,
volcanoes, tornados, floods, droughts,
to survive,
fire to discover,
wheels to invent
and then, and only then,
can we sit back
and ask ourselves,
“What are we doing here?
What is the meaning of our lives?”

It shouldn’t take long
to come up with an answer.